MWSF: The biggest surprise? Randy Newman is still alive!
Well, looks like the MacBook Air rumors proved true, and we’re going to have to get used to the name after all.
Apple today released a few new updates to existing products (Airport, iTunes, and iPhone) but the big news was the much rumored MacBook Air. Apple bills the MacBook Air as “the world’s thinnest notebook”, and from the pictures, who could argue?
“How did we fit a Mac in here?” wondered Steve during his Keynote speech.
Well, they fit a Mac in there by removing almost everything you normally expect to find in a Mac, aside from a screen and a keyboard.
The MacBook Air has no optical drive, no FireWire, no Ethernet, and only 1 USB port. On the plus side, Apple did not wuss out and put a tiny 11-inch screen. The MacBook Air has a full 13.- inch display. The bad news is it costs $1800. The good news is it has a purported 5 hours of battery life, which is great news. Normally we’d be skeptical of this claim, but we’ve found with the latest iPods and iPhones that Apple has been slightly under estimating the battery life of its gadgets lately. The bad news is, that battery is non-removable, like an iPod/iPhone.
The iPhone did not receive the memory upgrade many had hoped for, but it did receive the 1.1.3 firmware update that was the talk of the web about 2 weeks ago. Looks like GearLive’s video was the real deal. iPod touch users also got an update, or at least the opportunity to buy an update. For $20 iPhone-envious touch users can now buy 5 new apps for their iPod, including Mail, Stocks, Notes, Maps, and Weather.
The Airport Extreme became a home media server, of sorts. By adding a either a 500 GB or 1 TB drive to the Extreme, Apple created the new Time Capsul, a wireless router designed to help Apple laptop owners use Time Machine to backup their data wirelessly. Good news for laptop owners who don’t mind spending another $300 to do so.
The Apple TV didn’t gain anything hardware-wise, but a free software update allows for the purchasing of iTunes content (including movie rentals) directly from the Apple TV. It also got a nice price drop, coming in at $229 for the base model.
All in all, a decent Macworld speech, although absolutely everything we had been hoping for did not happen. Oh well. The MacBook Air, despite the odd-sounding name, certainly looks sexy, and I can absolutely see it being a hit with people who desire bling over practicality. Lawyers mainly. (Did I say that?).
Above: Image from Macrumors.com
Finally, by far the biggest news coming out of Macworld was the closing musical guest. In what can only be described as an entertainment coup, Apple somehow managed to snag Randy Newman to close the 2008 Macworld San Francisco Keynote address. It was great to see that Randy Newman is still alive (or was at the time of the speech, at least). Not sure how Apple managed to nab him, but I think it says something about Apple that Randy was able to drop everything and perform like that.
The Randy Newman line is priceless.
Apple stock dropped 10 bucks. Why Apple leaked the whole thing before hand.
A big Who Gives a Crap.
Apple lives by the sword and dies by it too. There buzz wasn’t this time. And I’m a Mac addict so don’t go there.
MB Air? Nice. But not a must have. Sell what I have and get one? Nope. This is the 2008 version of the Cube.
AppleTV? Have one. 40GB original version. Where is the plug a hard drive into AppleTV via it’s USB and play my OWNED ripped movies and play? Sorry this sucks. Movie rentals. OK. Had to happen. So what.
Airport with HD? Time Capsule? If it works (or doesn’t work as Air Disk doesn’t) who cares again. FIX AIR DISK APPLE! This is a straw that breaks the camel Apple. Sucker us ALL into BUYING the new Airport N with Time Machine backup via Airport and then don’t implement it. ONLY so you could make us all look like chumps with this crap today.
iPhone? I own 4. NO iChat OR COPY/PASTE? Another who gives a crap Apple.
All in all a bust of a MacWorld. BUST! Stock dropping is the evidence from investors too.
You’re losing me Apple. I will never go to Windows of course. But your shit does stink too sometimes. Today? Whew!
NO 16GB or more iPhone.
NO copy/paste
NO iChat
NO all in one Inbox for email
NO multi-delete of email
This was Steve Jobs WORST MacWorld Keynote EVER.
I really don’t mind the “no removable battery thing”. Besides, Apple has the stats of how much extra batterys they sell, and I bet thats not much. I never used the firewire. I use a gigabit external drive witch IMHO is way better. If I had a 802.11n would’nt care for the gigabit. It’s really for thouse with the “no wires” aproach.
Yeah…
I use my BlackBook all the damn time. In fact, for hours and hours a day.
Taking away the things that make a mac so useful is pretty retarded. Firewire, in everyone else’s honest opinion, is faster, more reliable, and keeps the USB free for thumb drives, mice, printers, etc..
So, they took away storage capacity, hookup points, and al that good stuff, for more money.
I think that I can safely say that the MacBook line is so near to ultra portable, that this wasn’t a necessary move for apple. I give the MBA less time than the Newton.
Functionality = gone. same overall size as the MB, just thinner.
I dig my WD 320gb drive. And it cost WAY less than the 64gb drive.
The way I see it, the MBA has two markets. With pricey SSD, it’s great for archeologists or military personnel, or anyplace a shockproof laptop is needed. With the measly 80 GB HD, it’s good for students and would slip easily into any backpack along with a bunch of books.
However, it’s completely underpowered as a primary computer. The archeologist would download data when they got back to the lab. Students would need a dock with bigger monitor, additional ports and additional HD storage.
I could be wrong, but I believe the MBA will have mediocre sales until they lower the price and improve the features. I would have considered an MBA with an SSD when I replace my MBP, but it definitely won’t be with this version of the MacBook Air.